Actor George Takei goes from future to past

While George Takei is best known as Captain Sulu on “Star Trek,” he is far more grounded in his current acting enterprise which draws on his pre-“Star Trek” past.

Takei, a Japanese-American, recounted to a San Diego group recently how his experiences as a child have launched him on a new acting project. When he was 5, his family was relocated by U.S. soldiers from their two-bedroom home in Los Angeles, first to a horse stable at the Santa Anita Race Track, then to a makeshift camp on swampy land in Arkansas. For the next few years, he eyed the world through a barbed wire fence.

Now, Takei, 75, will be acting out the reality-based story of a fictional Japanese family during their World War II internment in a debuting musical drama, “Allegiance.” Its world premiere is set for the Old Globe Theatre in September, from which it is expected to head to Broadway. Joining Takei in starring roles will be Lea Salonga (“Miss Saigon”) and Telly Leung (Wes in TV’s “Glee”). He refers to it as still a "work in progress."